Users seek each other out online and arrange discreet meetings to discuss distribution channels. Vendors won’t speak to reporters on the record because they are afraid the government will shut them down. Until recently, it was not unusual for transactions to take place in back alleys; a plastic bag handed over in exchange for a fistful of cash.

The product is not cocaine or marijuana. It is nicotine delivered via electronic cigarettes, which cannot be legally imported or sold in this country, but are widely available south of the border. The users are smokers or former smokers who have unsuccessfully tried to stop using government-approved products such as gum and patches, but found the only quitting method that works for them is also the one that happens to be illegal.

West Vancouver resident Gary Adelson tried everything — gum, patches, willpower, acupuncture, even hypnosis — to get off cigarettes because he could feel the physical toll smoking was taking on his body. A two-pack-a-day smoker for almost four decades, the 58-year-old made about a dozen attempts to quit in as many years, but the addiction was just too powerful.

Adelson was a couple of days into his latest quit attempt in 2010 and surfing the Internet when he stumbled across electronic cigarettes, devices that were supposed to deliver the nicotine without the smoke. He found someone in Vancouver on Craigslist who sold them and met him in an alley, where he exchanged cash for a plastic bag containing the device along with a nicotine-infused liquid.

“I swear to God it felt like doing a drug deal,” he recalled.

Electronic cigarettes come in many shapes and sizes, but most work the same way. Nicotine-containing cartridges are screwed on to the end of a rechargeable battery. When the user inhales, the e-cigarette combines the nicotine with vapour, which is often flavoured. Because there is no combustion, the user does not inhale all the toxic chemicals contained in tobacco smoke.

The cartridges — which have the equivalent number of “puffs” as a pack of cigarettes — cost between $2 and $3 each. The amount of nicotine in them varies. Starter kits including batteries and chargers start at about $50.

When Adelson first tried the “e-cig,” he had low expectations. But when he felt the vapour circulating in the back of his throat, creating a similar sensation to cigarette smoke, he thought this was something that just might work.

“I exhaled it and I blew a smoke ring and I said ... ‘Holy shit, where have you been all my life?’”

He has been tobacco-free ever since.

Internet forums on e-cigarettes are filled with stories similar to Adelson’s, but they remain banned in this country for good reason, according to Health Canada: There is no clinical evidence of what’s in them or that they are safe.

“Although these electronic smoking products may be marketed as a safer alternative to conventional tobacco products and, in some cases, as an aid to quitting smoking, electronic smoking products may pose risks such as nicotine poisoning and addiction,” according to a 2009 advisory posted on Health Canada’s website, which says Canadians should not purchase or use electronic cigarettes.

Electronic cigarettes fall under Canada’s Food and Drugs Act and as such require market authorization by the department before they can be sold, Health Canada spokeswoman Sara O’Dacre said in a statement. Cigarettes are regulated by the Tobacco Act and therefore fall under a different set of rules.

“Companies wishing to sell electronic cigarettes in Canada must submit scientific evidence to Health Canada demonstrating the safety, quality and efficacy of their product for a given claim,” she said. “To date, none of these products has been granted the necessary marketing authorization by Health Canada.”

The department has authorized the sale of a number of nicotine-based smoking cessation aids, she noted, including gum, patches, lozenges and inhalers. Electronic cigarettes that do not contain nicotine are also legal for sale in Canada.

“The problem with the e-cigarette is that though it delivers nicotine, we don’t know what else it really delivers,” he said. “Now, it’s probably safer than the cigarette because it doesn’t have the thousands of chemicals. It probably has many less. But we already know that one of the chemicals, something called propylene glycol, is not a great thing to be inhaling. It’s a known lung irritant.”

Nicotine is an addictive and toxic substance that has been linked to high blood pressure. It is not, however, a known carcinogen.

Khara said he has also heard the e-cigarette miracle cure anecdotes, but pointed out this is not the same as scientific data.

“At this point, we don’t have clinical trials that tell us that these products are either safe or effective.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also does not endorse the use of e-cigarettes and posts a similar advisory to Health Canada’s on its website, but because of differences in U.S. legislation, they can be legally sold in that country.

Adelson said Canadians should also be able to choose whether or not to use e-cigarettes after educating themselves as to the benefits and risks, the way they already do with cigarettes and alcohol. As the law stands, the legal options Adelson is left with are either smoking or nicotine replacement therapies that haven’t worked, he said.

“Many of us feel that Health Canada is giving us the finger.”

Adelson is even willing to offer himself as a guinea pig to test the health effects of e-cigarettes.

“I’d be the first one in line if I could ... have the good part without the bad; if I could have a way to smoke without killing myself and hurting people around me — my wife, my daughter — and without having to feel like a second-class citizen.”

Khara noted that such studies are already taking place around the world.

“I suspect it will be a year or two before we get the answers to this.”

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